Higher Education

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.VA. -- Call it having good parents, good teachers and good sense -- or just good luck when you know what path to take early in your life. Local resident Robert Dugan III, 20, a third-year student at Shepherd University, chartered a course a long time ago that included higher education. "I always wanted to graduate college. I never had any doubt in my mind," Dugan said. "In my family, education was the prime goal and it still is," Dugan said. He is the son of Bobby and Stacy Dugan and has two younger siblings at home.

In one sense, the event had the feel of a traditional college fair with college representatives there to help high school students plan for a career. But this was a much broader view of higher education with sessions geared at ways to even get elementary school students on the right track for college. The Future Starts Now: College and Career Planning for K-12 Families also helped parents with tips on how to pay for college education, such as applying for financial help through university trusts, offered high school students advice on what kind of preparation they need to start taking now for various fields and featured various panel discussions.

Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's higher education transition team met Wednesday in Hagerstown. A group of more than 50 discussed recommendations concerning the future of higher education in Maryland, said Freeman A. Hrabowski III, co-chairman of the transition team. The discussion group included members of O'Malley's transition team in higher education and officials in that field from across the state. The group met at the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown. Hrabowski said the site was the first used in Washington County by the higher education transitional team.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission is accepting proposals from institutions of higher education and other organizations interested in providing teacher training as part of the federal government's No Child Left Behind act. The deadline to submit proposals is June 4. The awards total more than $1 million with a maximum grant of $100,000 and a minimum of $25,000. Grants will be awarded to K-16 partnerships that include at least one public or private institution of higher education.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Rep. Patrick Fleagle, R-Franklin, is offering a booklet to constituents who are concerned about the cost of higher education. "Moving on to Higher Education," published by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, is designed to assist first-time students, regardless of their educational goals, with an understandable guide to financial aid. PHEAA has distributed copies of the booklet to Pennsylvania high schools....

When a child brings home a bad report card, the time-honored tradition for parents is to ground the errant student until grades improve. But what do you do when an entire state gets an unacceptable report card? Every other year, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education issues a national report card for higher education called "Measuring Up. " The five subject areas evaluated are preparation (Are students being prepared adequately for higher education?

A month after a Wall Street bond rating agency praised West Virginia for encouraging more young people to seek a college education, Gov. Bob Wise is asking state colleges to trim their budgets by 9 percent. We question the wisdom of this request that comes just after a 10 percent across-the-board cut for all state agencies. News of Wise's request that higher education absorb another $34 million in cuts came Sunday night. Lawmakers reacted almost immediately, decrying the cut's probable effect on economic development.

October brings to mind the Baikonur cosmodrome, Coalwood, W.Va., and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Fifty years ago this month, Russia launched Sputnik from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Americans were stunned. The Space Age was supposed to be initiated by the United States, not the Russians. A 184-pound satellite the size of a Halloween pumpkin had splattered American dreams of inaugurating the Space Age. Homer Hickam listened to the radio reports about the launch in his hometown of Coalwood, West Virginia.

The Washington County Board of Education approved a mission statement, vision statement and list of core values on Tuesday. The mission statement says, "Washington County schools will provide every student with the highest quality education to prepare them for higher education, for entry into the workforce, and for responsible citizenship. " The board envisions a school system where every child has opportunity, schools are progressive and student-centered and communities share responsibility for education.

BALTIMORE - Five Washington County students were among the 143 Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholars named by the Maryland State Department of Education for 2009. They are: o Jill Helmstetter, Hancock Middle-Senior High School o Steven Wolfe, Grace Academy o Andrew Bitner, Boonsboro High School o Christopher Bradford, North Hagerstown High School o Bethany Garnand, Smithsburg High School Each honoree receives a four-year scholarship worth up to $1,500 per year, to be used for undergraduate study at any institution of higher education based on cost of attendance.

In one sense, the event had the feel of a traditional college fair with college representatives there to help high school students plan for a career. But this was a much broader view of higher education with sessions geared at ways to even get elementary school students on the right track for college. The Future Starts Now: College and Career Planning for K-12 Families also helped parents with tips on how to pay for college education, such as applying for financial help through university trusts, offered high school students advice on what kind of preparation they need to start taking now for various fields and featured various panel discussions.

Wilson College abandoned a 144-year commitment To the editor:  On Jan. 28, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a letter by Notre Dame of Maryland University President James F. Conneely in which he declares the continuing need for women's colleges. His position is in sharp contrast to the recent decision by the Wilson College Board of Trustees to abandon the 144-year commitment to women's education.  I was one of many alumnae who worked to encourage Wilson College to remain true to her mission of educating women.

More than 50 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday afternoon, formally recognizing a University System of Maryland at Hagerstown expansion into a new building in the heart of the city's downtown. USMH enrollment numbers are up, by about 14 percent this past fall, and approximately 500 students are currently taking classes, according to Mark Halsey, executive director of USMH. “And we are seeing every reason to believe that we'll see probably close to that same growth level again next fall,” Halsey said after the ceremony, which was attended by numerous local elected and educational officials as well as community and business leaders.

Sometimes we, as a community, are so absorbed with fault-finding that we fail to notice the success stories that reside right under our noses. We have a number of shining lights in Washington County, but Hagerstown Community College would have to rank among the brightest. Reinforcing that perception this month were statistics revealing that Hagerstown Community College outgained all other community colleges in the state in enrollment percentage, and was near the top when all other institutions of higher education were considered, as well.

Lois Smith Harrison was a woman who blazed trails in more ways than one, becoming a pioneer for higher education in Washington County, making her own way through a college education in the 1940s that was rare for women at that time and juggling home chores with her professional life that many women today now struggle to maintain, according to friends and family members. From being one of the people who helped start Hagerstown Junior College to becoming the first alumna of Hood College to be selected as chairperson of the college's board of trustees, Harrison was known for her boundless energy that was evident “from the time she woke up to the moment she flopped in bed,” according to her daughter, Margaret Harrison.

Hagerstown Community College student Nouhoun Barry of Hagerstown recently won the Helen and Gene Kline Scholarship for the fall 2012 semester. Barry, 22, has a 4.0 grade-point average and is majoring in engineering science. Originally from Burkina Faso in western Africa, Barry became interested in engineering as a small child. He came to the United States two years ago to pursue his education and will graduate from HCC in the summer of 2013. Barry's future plans include earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at the University of Maryland or the École de Technologie Supérieure, an engineering school in Montreal.

School is back in session. It seems to happen earlier every year. Elementary, high school and college campuses are full of expectations. Many of last year's high school graduates are now enrolled in programs of higher education. America's four-year schools expect as many 15 million in attendance this year as with another 8 million or so in two-year post-graduate schools. But is college worth it? Have we been oversold on the idea that college is the path to a better future or are we simply turning out more candidates to join the Occupy Wall Street movement?

Thumbs up to Lisa Key, circulation manager for Washington County Free Library, who was named the 2012 Outstanding Paraprofessional by the Maryland Library Association. Key will mark 35 years working for the library system July 1. Thumbs up to the several thousand students in the Tri-State area who have graduated or soon will graduate from high school. We wish them well as they enter the next chapter of their life, be it higher education, the military or the work force.

On Monday, his first day as executive director of the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, Mark Halsey said he sees the potential for more “blended learning” at the local campus. Blended, or hybrid, learning is a mix of traditional classroom interaction and electronic communication, he said. Students work more on their own on course material, then use classroom time to talk and build upon lessons, rather than always hearing a lecture. Halsey comes to USMH from Virginia Tech University, where he was the director of finance and administration for distance learning.